I would say the book is geared toward people who not only work, but for whom their career is very important. My career as an archivist, which is what my career was at the time when I read this book (and still is, in theory, anyway) was important to me, but not in a way where it was in danger of interfering with my personal life beyond the fact that I had to go to my job 40 hours a week and I was often worried about things related to work when I wasn't at work. So some of the things he suggested didn't really resonate with me.
Here was a problem I had: keeping our tiny kitchen clean. I kept wanting to put cleaning the kitchen in the Important And Urgent category because if everything is dirty and piled on the counter, it makes cooking dinner difficult or impossible, particularly for someone like me who is a morning person and can barely muster the will to go on after about 4 pm. (Either Mr. Covey does not do his own dishes, or he is one of those people who has plenty of energy after dinner and he just does them in 10 minutes, because he did not address this in his book.)
Here was a problem I had: keeping our tiny kitchen clean. I kept wanting to put cleaning the kitchen in the Important And Urgent category because if everything is dirty and piled on the counter, it makes cooking dinner difficult or impossible, particularly for someone like me who is a morning person and can barely muster the will to go on after about 4 pm. (Either Mr. Covey does not do his own dishes, or he is one of those people who has plenty of energy after dinner and he just does them in 10 minutes, because he did not address this in his book.)
But, my husband argued, doing dishes couldn't possibly be considered an Important thing! It had to be one of the either Urgent (to me) or Non-Urgent (to him) But Not Important things. But, I countered, cooking healthy meals is an important and worthwhile goal, and having a clean kitchen enables this.
Now that I am, for the time being, a stay-at-home mom, the past 5 years have felt at times like one long string of Unimportant things. Would Mr. Covey label putting away laundry as Important? How about making lunch? Wiping off the table? Getting dressed? Brushing teeth? Putting on shoes? And to top it off, for many people, being a stay-at-home parent often feels like a long string of Unimportant But Urgent Things That I Am Failing To Do because, somehow, for some people, taking care of a baby makes getting anything at all done feel nearly impossible. What a horrible feeling to have no big rocks even in play, and to be not even getting the pebbles and water into the jar.
Now, as I have mentioned before, it is time to reframe.
...and I will do that another day.
Now, as I have mentioned before, it is time to reframe.
...and I will do that another day.
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